Warren Mayor James Fouts blasts ex-employees in tirade

(WARNING: The audio file with this story has strong language that may be offensive to some listeners)

In a profanity-filled tirade being investigated by Michigan State Police, Warren Mayor James Fouts blasts two former employees, complaining about litigation and his online profile.

In a recorded telephone conversation between the mayor and an appointee — a copy of which was obtained by The Macomb Daily — Fouts said of one of the former workers: “If I had a baseball bat, I’d beat the f----- down to the f------ ground. I mean, it would take me just a little bit to get a f------ gun and blow his f------ head out. That’s how p----- off I am.”

During the first taped call, Fouts complains about an online public forum about Warren, the City Council’s involvement in a money transfer and political headaches.

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“Do you understand the depth of my anger?” he told the appointee.

In a follow-up recorded conversation involving the mayor and the same individual, Fouts expressed frustration about repeated changes to his Wikipedia profile that he believes reflected negatively about him.

Fouts is heard on the recording saying that he hired “a professional” to monitor his Wikipedia page and “clean it up” when necessary. He said a mayoral staff alerted him that potentially unflattering information surfaced later.

The mayor suspects his profile on Wikipedia — the Web-based encyclopedia permits readers to submit information and warns readers that some information may require verification — was sabotaged by a political enemy.

One of his staffers found that potentially unflattering information was added.

“I can’t have my biography completely, uh, vandalized by this f------ a------,” he said about the former employee he suspects of entering new information about him.

Fouts told his appointee both former city employees will be targets of a trust fund that he established to attack his enemies and help friendly candidates for office — after he dies. The fund, the mayor said, has more than $100,000.

“It’s called reaching out from the grave,” Fouts told the official on the phone.

“Well one of these days I’m just going to flip out, and I’m going to go over there and I’m going to take a 2-by-4 and beat the hell out of them. I may end up in jail. But I’m getting angrier and angrier,” he said.

The mayor summed up the latter, 7-minute conversation saying he will contact the Michigan Attorney General to file a complaint.

Earlier this week, Michigan State Police confirmed they are investigating the recorded calls to determine whether Fouts illegally used a phone to make a threat.

Fouts did not immediately return a phone call to The Macomb Daily on Friday.

On Thursday, the second-term mayor insisted he broke no laws and is eager to talk to State Police detectives. At the time, he insisted he didn’t know the nature of the allegations against him, yet revealed that he recently had “private” phone conversations with one of his appointees that he suspects were recorded and turned over to police.

“I realize I’m a public official and may not have the same right to privacy as others but also feel to do the job I’ve got to have political appointees I can speak with privately, confidentially and with complete trust. If this (taped conversations) is true, it’s a gross violation of confidentiality of trust I have with political appointees,” he said.

State Police Lt. Michael Shaw said investigators recently began delving into the phone call tapes and noted that allegations are not proof of a crime.

Shaw said it does not appear that the investigation is linked to a federal grand jury probe that began last year into city government including a high-ranking appointee and city contracts.

Last August, the FBI served the first of two subpoenas in a seven-week period. Federal officials requested records involving the city’s purchase of garbage trucks since 2008, and parts and tires for those rigs; documents including the city’s contract with Detroit Renewable Energy and/or Detroit Renewable Power, the company that operates the Detroit trash incinerator; and all emails that Deputy Public Service Director Gus Ghanam sent, received or was copied on.

Ghanam was appointed by Fouts in late 2007.

In late September, federal officials ordered the city to provide additional documents about Ghanam and other municipal records involving a Shelby Township company, Able Demolition, and contracts and other documents involving the South Macomb Disposal Authority.

Fouts, 70, was first elected to the Warren City Council in 1981 and served continuously before voters chose him as the city’s chief elected administrator in 2007.